The provincial governor of southwestern Farah province, Rohul Amin, said a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in a crowded area of Farah City, killing 17 people and wounding 29.
Farah Province Police Chief Faqir Mohammad Askar said the target of the attack was a senior police official, who was killed along with two of his bodyguards.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf telephoned Reuters from an undisclosed location and denied his group had carried out the Farah raid. “Whenever there are civilian casualties, the Taliban deny responsibility,” said Amin. “This attack was definitely carried out by the Taliban.”
In a separate incident, an Afghan parliamentarian and former mujahideen commander escaped a roadside bomb blast unhurt on the outskirts of Kabul on Friday, but five of his bodyguards were killed, said a police official who declined to be named.
Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who heads an Islamic political party and was a prominent anti-Soviet fighter during the Soviet occupation, was driving in a convoy in Paghman just outside Kabul when the convoy was hit by a bomb placed under a bridge.
